The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected the federal government’s proposed plans to restructure the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) as outlined by Minister Adebayo Adelabu.
Joe Ajaero, NLC’s president, expressed grave concerns about the hidden motives behind the proposed restructuring, stating that it is “laden with other intentions that may be hidden but very clear to every discerning Nigerian.”
Ajaero warned that the plan “portends great danger to the Power sector and holds great fear and trepidation for major stakeholders within the Power sector. It imperils the ability of the state to control, regulate and guarantee the safety of the nation’s grid system at all times.”
The NLC president drew parallels between the current proposed restructuring and the failed privatization exercise of the Power sector in the past, stating that they are “the same big grammar that was spoken before and during the failed privatisation exercise of the sector.”
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He emphasised that the proposed restructuring is simply a repackaged version of the unbundling that brought misery to the Nigerian people and the economy.
Ajaero further accused the government of seeking to hand over the TCN to “cronies and lackeys of the ruling elite,” stating that “when words like Unbundling are bandied about in Nigeria, the masses and workers become frightened because of the level of misery such words have foisted on the people.”
The NLC also believes that the government is “making the same mistake previous administrations have made” by seeking to privatise the TCN.
They argued that a genuine national stakeholders’ forum should be convened to review the failed privatization exercise rather than embarking on another potentially disastrous move.
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Ajaero painted a bleak picture of the potential consequences of the proposed restructuring, emphasizing the multidimensional disaster that would befall the nation’s power sector.
He warned that privatisation would expose the nation to blackmail, weaken the ability of the sector to transmit and distribute power and create the same crisis prevailing within the DISCOs and GENCOs.
He reminded the government of the NLC’s past warnings against the privatization exercise, highlighting the significant increase in tariffs without any improvement in service delivery. He stated that “the Power sector remains stagnant as no significant investment was made by those who bought the GENCOs and DISCOs through proxies.”
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The NLC president also pointed out that the government has paid about N2.8 trillion in subsidies for a sector it handed over to the private sector. He further stated that the sector has been handed over to banks due to the investors’ inability to pay their loans. The sector has been deprived of managerial and technical competence and foreign direct investment.
Ajaero concluded by emphasizing the severe economic consequences of the proposed restructuring, particularly when Nigeria is leading other nations in power poverty. He urged the government to design a conscious power policy free from neoliberal economic influences to ensure real progress for the nation.
The NLC urges the government to reconsider its plans to restructure the TCN and calls for a genuine stakeholder dialogue to find a sustainable solution for the nation’s power sector.
